UNICEF report warns 30 million girls at risk of genital mutilation

ELEANOR HALL: The UN children's fund, UNICEF, is warning today that more than 30 million of the world's girls are at risk of genital mutilation over the next decade.

The UNICEF report looks for the first time at just how widespread the practice is, and finds that 125 million girls and women alive today have undergone genital cutting in the belief that it protects their virginity.

UNICEF is calling for an end to the controversial practice, saying it's a violation of women's rights.

The report's author, Claudia Cappa, spoke to me from Washington.

CLAUDIA CAPPA: FGNC, or female genital mutilation and cutting, is a clear form of violence against girls and women. Also, female genital mutilation is a form of gender discrimination, which is also one of the main concerns of UNICEF.

ELEANOR HALL: Now, your report looks for the first time at just how widespread this practice is. Were you shocked by what you found?

CLAUDIA CAPPA: Well, it is still shocking to learn that 125 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to female genital mutilation and cutting. In certain countries - like Egypt, for instance, Djibouti, Guinea and Somalia - FGNC, female genital mutilation and cutting, is universal. This means that more than 90 per cent of girls and women of reproductive age have undergone the practice.

ELEANOR HALL: And you found that in some countries where the practice has been prevalent, there was a significant reduction in the number of young girls going through female genital mutilation, while in others it was completely unchanged. Is there an obvious reason for that divergence?

CLAUDIA CAPPA: It's very difficult to try to explain what has happened in certain countries. We have made progress is countries like, for instance, the United Republic of Tanzania, or in Kenya, where adolescent girls - 15 to 19, for instance - are three times less likely to have undergone female genital mutilation than women aged 45 to 49.

Many factors can explain this: demographic trends, increased educational levels of women and their doctors can be factors, but also the legislation that has been adopted by this country and the campaigns that have been conducted.

ELEANOR HALL: Does government legislation outlawing the practice make a significant difference?

CLAUDIA CAPPA: Legislation is indeed very important, and out of the 29 countries where FGNC is concentrated, 24 have adopted legislation against the practice. However, legislation alone is not enough if the social norms go unchallenged, and continue to condone female genital mutilation and cutting.

Faced with legislation, for instance, that prohibits female genital mutilation, those who live in communities, for instance, that still see this practice as a social obligation are likely to continue the practice, sometimes in secret, rather than abandon it, and this can make things even more dangerous for girls.

ELEANOR HALL: So how critical is the role of men in this?

CLAUDIA CAPPA: Many boys and men are against female genital mutilation and cutting. They actually want this practice to end. So they can be very important agents of change, especially because in certain society men have the power to make decisions.

ELEANOR HALL: You mentioned that in Egypt, 90 per cent of girls are still being cut. Why is a country like Egypt not changing when countries like Nigeria, Liberia and Iraq are?

CLAUDIA CAPPA: That's probably a million dollar question. If you have a country where the practice remains almost universal, it's also a country where more and more women are aware of the risks, and they try to mitigate the risk by medicalising the practice, by having their doctor cut, by health professionals, and they want to go back to the social expectations: women think that this is what is expected of them by their communities, by their religion, by their religious leaders, by their husbands.

However, specifically in the case of Egypt, women do not know what men think of female genital mutilation and cutting.

ELEANOR HALL: But what about the opinions of men? Did they support female genital mutilation? Egyptian men?

CLAUDIA CAPPA: The percentage of boys and men who think that the practice should continue is quite similar to the proportion of women. And here again you can see that young boys, adolescent boys aged 15 to 19, are significantly less likely to support the continuation of the practice than older men.

ELEANOR HALL: So what is UNICEF doing practically to help these women and girls who don't want to be cut or have their daughters subjected to it?

CLAUDIA CAPPA: In 15 countries now, UNICEF has launched together with the United Nations Population Fund new programs to support the abandonment of the practice, to facilitating community dialogue. And this is a way of trying to eliminate harmful social norms and replace it with a positive one.

ELEANOR HALL: And that's UNICEF statistics and monitoring specialist Claudia Cappa, who's also the author of that report. She was speaking to me from Washington.